The Politically Inclined Heretic comments on political and cultural news events on a daily or almost-daily basis from a thoughtful nonpartisan perspective.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Raid on Ship

While the rest of the world condemnsIsrael, it would be useful to keep some things in perspective:

1. we don't as of yet know if the "humanitarian" mission was used to disguise an arms shipment to the Gaza

2. we don't know if the humanitarians have any knowledge of any arms shipment

3. we don't know if the Israeli's assertions concerning an alternative means for delivering the aforementioned humanitarian aid were actually made

4. we don't know if the Israeli's assertion about who fired first are true or not

5. we don't know whether the knives that were used were for their own protection or a part of the stash that could have been delivered to Gaza

6. we do know that the Gaza Strip is administered by Hamas, a terrorist organization that has called for and fights for the abolition of the Israeli state.

7. we do know that Israel is surrounded by countries populated by those who hate them and do no believe they have a right to their own country.

8. we do know that the leaders of those countries will only allow their people to assemble when they will use that time to express their rage and hate at the Israeli people and its government as a whole.

9. we do know that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proven, over the course of his two stints as his country's leader, that he has no interest in restarting the peace negotiations.

10. we know that the the Israeli administration, under Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to permit settlement expansion on land that ultimately will be ceded or traded for land that will have to be ceded to a future Palestinian state.

11. We do know that the incident occurred in international waters and not in water that is claimed by Gaza or Israel.

12. We don't know if the reaction from the European nations would have been any different if the incident took place in Israeli waters.

13. We don't know why the Israelis chose to raid the ship while it was not in Israeli waters. The Israelis say they were attacked, and consequently that those who were on the ship were prepared to fight back. We don't know if this was because the Israelis warned them of the pending raid or if they spotted the Israelis from afar. If they were spotted from afar, waiting until the ship entered Israeli territory would have exposed Israeli troops to an unnecessary loss in human lives while the ship's crew armed themselves.

14. We do know that Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right and a responsibility to defend its territorial integrity and the people who claim citizenship within it.

15. We do know that the Gazans have a right to humanitarian aid.

At this point we can neither condemn nor defend the Israelis for the raid.

About Me

I'm a college graduate with a B.A. in political science and a minor in journalism who worked for a local newspaper.
As my title suggests, I'm a political heretic with moderately conservative to a moderately conservative perspective though I have a great deal of respect for and adherence to the libertarian and radically centrist points of view as well.
If you wanted a breakdown politically, you could say I'm slightly right of center on foreign policy (with a strong affinity with the realist school of thought), slightly left of center on the cultural issues, and probably dead center on fiscal issues and the entitlements. But this is not entirely accurate either. Sometimes I go left and right at the same time on the same issue.
I am an independent republican (small "r") who has voted for Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Party candidates who has voted for candidates from the Republican, Democratic and third parties.